Being More Restful
We need rest. It is essential to our life. We spend a third of our life sleeping, but what is it for? We are exposed to so much stress, and how are we to relax and enjoy life? Sleeping well and relaxing well can be accomplished with the thoughtful habit of being more Restful. This is a habit critical to your happiness.
The role of sleep has been historically mysterious, but now we know the “whys” and “hows” of sleep. This increased knowledge has revealed we are living in a modern technology-driven sleep-sick society. Our culture and our lifestyles are wreaking havoc on our health. When sleeping the body removes unimportant thoughts, organizes everything, and then stores important thoughts accordingly. Is that happening well for you?
Beyond sleep deprivation, there are a significant number of different diagnosable sleep disorders, and each has dire negative health consequences. We are living through an epidemic of weight issues, metabolic problems, heart and brain disease, and psychological and memory disorders. All are negatively impacted by dysfunctional sleep. Even fatigue-related traffic accidents are estimated to be 1/3 of the total. The changes with daylight savings times has more accidents occurring when we lose an hour of sleep, and significantly less when we gain an hour. It makes a difference.
Just as facts are stubborn, good sleep is irreplaceable. It is fundamental and essential to our health and well-being. It is the foundation upon which we build a healthy life, and live it to its fullest potential. Sleep plays a crucial role in learning and decision making. Good sleep steadies our emotions and our mental sense of well-being; boosts immune function and activity; stimulates metabolism while moderating appetite; improves learning while slowing memory loss; regulates hormone activity; improves diabetic control; and plays a role in cancer prevention. Not only quality, but quantity of life is impacted by sleep. Healthy sleep appears to be more influential in improving our longevity and our quality of life than diet, exercise, or heredity.
Sleep is divided into 2 separate states of consciousness: non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM). NREM sleep has been subdivided into 4 distinct stages, with stage 1 being light sleep, and stages 3 and 4 as deep, or delta, sleep. Delta sleep is the stage where memories are effectively transferred from the short term and implanted in long term storage. REM sleep is also described as dream sleep. During this stage the heart rate and blood pressure alternates between increasing and decreasing. The brain wave pattern during REM sleep closely resembles the patterns associated with wakefulness. REM sleep is thought to be the stage of sleep during which memories and emotions are integrated within the total, or entirety, of our life experience.
We need to start with the realization that our body has a built in clock and natural rhythms, the circadian rhythms, and we should learn to live within them. Most importantly, it is not just the quantity of sleep but the regularity of when we sleep which impacts health. Sleeping six hours every night on a consistent schedule is associated with a lower risk of early death than sleeping eight hours with very irregular habits. Also, as we get older, melatonin production decreases, so we have to do things to help with good sleep.
Here are some steps you can take for good sleep.
Be sure to pay attention to relaxation, as this is the process of releasing stress and charging up your energy system. In other words, relaxation helps you let go of unwanted tension and cultivates vitality throughout your body and mind. Some refer to sitting on the couch watching TV or drinking alcohol as relaxation, but they do not cultivate vitality.
Trying to constantly stay on top of the news or engage in social media can be exhausting. When living in a non-stop culture, it is important for us to bring ourselves to a stop. The sights, sounds and smells of nature will give a break to our brains. Brakes from daily work habits are critical.
It is even thought that humans exist on a circaseptan cycle of rhythms, that being of seven days. Can we have just one day of the seven without the normal stresses and craziness of life? Distraction has become the new normal. Our brains plead for downtime, but do we allow for it? Many religions have this day of rest built into their culture. Research has shown that the best time to start a one day complete resting period is sunset on Friday.
During the period of time you focus on building the Restful habit, everyday try to take one or two of the above suggestions and more fully incorporated them into your life. Be just a bit more rigorous every day in the application of these steps, and your period of sleep and states of relaxation will improve. So will your happiness!
The role of sleep has been historically mysterious, but now we know the “whys” and “hows” of sleep. This increased knowledge has revealed we are living in a modern technology-driven sleep-sick society. Our culture and our lifestyles are wreaking havoc on our health. When sleeping the body removes unimportant thoughts, organizes everything, and then stores important thoughts accordingly. Is that happening well for you?
Beyond sleep deprivation, there are a significant number of different diagnosable sleep disorders, and each has dire negative health consequences. We are living through an epidemic of weight issues, metabolic problems, heart and brain disease, and psychological and memory disorders. All are negatively impacted by dysfunctional sleep. Even fatigue-related traffic accidents are estimated to be 1/3 of the total. The changes with daylight savings times has more accidents occurring when we lose an hour of sleep, and significantly less when we gain an hour. It makes a difference.
Just as facts are stubborn, good sleep is irreplaceable. It is fundamental and essential to our health and well-being. It is the foundation upon which we build a healthy life, and live it to its fullest potential. Sleep plays a crucial role in learning and decision making. Good sleep steadies our emotions and our mental sense of well-being; boosts immune function and activity; stimulates metabolism while moderating appetite; improves learning while slowing memory loss; regulates hormone activity; improves diabetic control; and plays a role in cancer prevention. Not only quality, but quantity of life is impacted by sleep. Healthy sleep appears to be more influential in improving our longevity and our quality of life than diet, exercise, or heredity.
Sleep is divided into 2 separate states of consciousness: non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM). NREM sleep has been subdivided into 4 distinct stages, with stage 1 being light sleep, and stages 3 and 4 as deep, or delta, sleep. Delta sleep is the stage where memories are effectively transferred from the short term and implanted in long term storage. REM sleep is also described as dream sleep. During this stage the heart rate and blood pressure alternates between increasing and decreasing. The brain wave pattern during REM sleep closely resembles the patterns associated with wakefulness. REM sleep is thought to be the stage of sleep during which memories and emotions are integrated within the total, or entirety, of our life experience.
We need to start with the realization that our body has a built in clock and natural rhythms, the circadian rhythms, and we should learn to live within them. Most importantly, it is not just the quantity of sleep but the regularity of when we sleep which impacts health. Sleeping six hours every night on a consistent schedule is associated with a lower risk of early death than sleeping eight hours with very irregular habits. Also, as we get older, melatonin production decreases, so we have to do things to help with good sleep.
Here are some steps you can take for good sleep.
- Establish a regular daily 7 to 9 hour sleep schedule. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a third of Americans don’t get this. In general we are sleeping about one hour less than our great grandparents. Sleeping more than 9 hours is also counterproductive.
- Try to be consistent when you go to bed and when you wake up.
- The body is programmed to rest early. Hours before midnight are more valuable, as melatonin production starts around 9:30 PM and decreases throughout the night. People who contend they are night owls are really just fooling themselves. If they spent a couple days camping outside, they would quickly turn into morning people.
- Wake up with the sun, as sunlight increases levels of alertness, enhancing the serotonin hormones. As the cycle of your internal clock gets better educated, more serotonin is secreted during the day, which impacts the amount of melatonin one gets at night.
- Keep your bedroom dark and cool. Even lights from an alarm clock are disruptive.
- The blue light of TVs, computer screens and phones delays melatonin production, and should be avoided one hour before sleep.
- Caffeine consumption delays the onset of sleep, so avoid this beginning in the afternoon.
- Alcohol consumption disrupts deep sleep. One may think they get to sleep earlier, but it decreases good sleep.
- Exercise and sleep do play roles with each other, as a good night’s sleep enables the body to perform well physically, and moderate physical exercise increases certain hormones that enhance sleep.
- A diet rich in tryptophan improves sleep health, and plant-based complex carbohydrates help tryptophan access the brain. An amino acid, tryptophan helps produce the serotonin and melatonin hormones. You will find Tryptophan in tofu, gluten flour, pumpkin and sesame seeds, almonds and black walnuts, and black-eyed cowpeas.
Be sure to pay attention to relaxation, as this is the process of releasing stress and charging up your energy system. In other words, relaxation helps you let go of unwanted tension and cultivates vitality throughout your body and mind. Some refer to sitting on the couch watching TV or drinking alcohol as relaxation, but they do not cultivate vitality.
Trying to constantly stay on top of the news or engage in social media can be exhausting. When living in a non-stop culture, it is important for us to bring ourselves to a stop. The sights, sounds and smells of nature will give a break to our brains. Brakes from daily work habits are critical.
It is even thought that humans exist on a circaseptan cycle of rhythms, that being of seven days. Can we have just one day of the seven without the normal stresses and craziness of life? Distraction has become the new normal. Our brains plead for downtime, but do we allow for it? Many religions have this day of rest built into their culture. Research has shown that the best time to start a one day complete resting period is sunset on Friday.
During the period of time you focus on building the Restful habit, everyday try to take one or two of the above suggestions and more fully incorporated them into your life. Be just a bit more rigorous every day in the application of these steps, and your period of sleep and states of relaxation will improve. So will your happiness!